Celebrating 13 Years: My Top 5 Activation Highlights
It was in March 2011 that I left my position at Freedom as State Visual Merchandising Manager WA to start my next chapter, founding Design Merchants.
Starting from humble beginnings, working from my home studio, my vision for Design Merchants was to empower businesses to create the best store experiences possible through visual merchandising consulting and training. Of course I also had the goal of designing and creating next level displays and in-store experiences! This soon became a reality and I was also fortunate to be starting just as pop-ups were becoming more popular in Perth. Designing for this new way of activating spaces and thinking about temporary experiences as a way to build brand awareness, enter the retail sphere for new businesses and connect with new audiences became a key part of our business.
Looking back, it is hard to pick favourites but some of our highlights for activations over the years are as follows!
1. 140 Perth Projects
One of our first major clients was 140 Perth and over the years we collaborated on a large range of pop-ups and activations so I am being cheeky in including a range of these projects as one highlight!
Coming off the back of the redevelopment of the retail area in 2015 with 140 POP-UP we were engaged to design and fit out a range of pop-up shops including the temporary food outlet, Concida Bandito. We then worked on launch activations for 140 ALIVE, created an early ‘Millennial Pink’ inspired temporary office activation in 140 WORK as well as a relaxing winter oasis in 140 LODGE which were all highlights under the 140 umbrella.
2. SHINE | Enex 100 | 2018
Creating an installation based activation in response to the SHINE Enex 100 campaign creative brief was definitely one of my highlights. We were supplied with the tree frames and bases and asked to design and produce an art installation style activation incorporating colour, texture and interactivity. My Fine Art degree bred skills definitely came to the fore and of course making is a huge part of what Design Merchants do so it was highly enjoyable. The tactile quality of the cord wrapped trees in particular and response from the public was a pleasure to see. I still have a very clear memory of the hours and hours of the making process and the whole team going above and beyond during a particularly hot summer in the workshop but still having fun.
3. Sorbet Social Laneway Activation | Raine Square | 2021
Raine Square provided us with many inspiring creative briefs over the years. Sorbet Social was a great concept to work with, the focus being to create a dynamic laneway activation for giveaways and to increase dwell time. We created an abundance of tassel covered arches, had giant popsicles made for an artist to paint and styled the area with props and plants to engage passers by while still allowing for unpredictable weather.
4. Easter Garden Activation | Lakeside Joondalup Shopping City | 2022
Easter Garden at Lakeside Joondalup Shopping City was another activation highlight. Creating a space for children (and adults) to meet the Easter Bunny as well as plenty of opportunities for photos through the floral tunnel. The overall aesthetic of sweet, whimsical garden allowed us to showcase our love of creating realistic looking faux floral activations.
5. Colour Series Placemaking Activations | Curtin University | 2022
In 2022 we were given the creative brief by Explore Curtin to design a series of placemaking activations for the Curtin University students all based on a single colour. We selected orange, yellow and green and incorporated colour theory, activities and giveaways within the activation design to evoke those colours. Again, I am counting these 3 activations as one highlight! 😉 So Orange Oasis, Hello Yellow and Green Sanctuary were created. The level of engagement from the students as well as positive feedback only added to them being on our highlight list as well as the overall design outcome.
It has been quite the trip down memory lane looking back on all of our activations and extremely difficult to choose only five highlights. You can see even more of our past activations on our portfolio page HERE.
I can’t wait to share many more designs and the evolving styles of activations as we focus on the two main areas of the business- Creative Projects, including activations, visual merchandising and floral installations, as well as VM Education.
Thanks to our many past and present clients for your amazing briefs and collaborations as well as our world class suppliers, fabricators and of course my team over the years. Looking forward to many more years of Design Merchants to come!
Until next time,
Juliet